DVBLogic Release DVBLink v4 Suite

Andrew Edney
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0
DVBLogic Release DVBLink v4 Suite

Today saw the release of the DVBLink v4 suite from DVBLogic.

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Here is what they said:

We at DVBLogic are extremely proud to announce release of the DVBLink v4 products!

Rebuilt using new architecture version 4 forms the basis for further development and extension of the DVBLink product suit.
DVBLink v4 products have a lot new features, improvements and fixes over previous version. The most notable of them are:

  • More intuitive and easier Windows MediaCenter setup
  • Support of up to 8 virtual tuners in Windows MediaCenter
  • Web based DVBLink server configuration
  • New DVBLink Connect! Server with support for live TV, timer scheduling and EPG on Android, IPhone, IPad and Windows Mobile devices
  • DVBLink Boxee client that enables watching live TV on Linux and Mac computers as well as in Boxee Box itself
  • DVBLink Remote API, which can be used to create 3rd party DVBLink clients

DVBLink v4 launch is accompanied with launch of DVBLogic Wiki. It is the place to go for Installation and Configuration manuals, FAQ’s and How-To’s. We all hope that it will make installation and configuration of DVBLink products much easier and faster.

DVBLink v4 is a paid upgrade for v2/v3 owners who purchased products before 1 July 2011. For those who have purchased DVBLink products on or after that date the upgrade is free of charge.

We would like to thank all of our beta testers who provided their valueable input.
DVBLink v4 products can be downloaded from the first page of our website.
You can also read official press release here.

Enjoy!

Well done DVBLogic!

WHS 2011 Add-in: Drive Bender v1.2.0.0 (RC1) Available Now

Andrew Edney
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12
WHS 2011 Add-in: Drive Bender v1.2.0.0 (RC1) Available Now

Today saw Drive Bender for Windows Home Server 2011 – RC1 released – its version 1.2.0.0. There is also an offer to buy Drive Bender at a pre-release price.

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Here is what they said:

DriveBenderWHS v1.2.0.0

(10M)

New beta license key for all versions
To install, select “Activate”, enter the key, DO NOT check the activate online option. Note on WHS, the activate option is on the Drive Bender getting started screen.
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To purchase a Drive Bender license at the limited, pre-release sale price of $20 USD, click here.

For more information check out the Drive Bender website

WHS 2011 Add-in: Drive Bender RC1 Coming Today

Andrew Edney
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0
WHS 2011 Add-in: Drive Bender RC1 Coming Today

Today saw an announcement about Drive Bender for Windows Home Server 2011 – RC1 should be released today!

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Here is what they said:

Drive Bender RC1 is in the finally stage of testing and is set to be released on the 4th of October. RC1 has a refreshed interface (both the standard Windows version, along with the WHS version), in addition to other improvements, the list is long.

Given the stability we have seen with v1.1.8.8, we are expecting RC1 to be much of the same, and if all goes to plan, we should see a final release within a short period.

Finally we get a lot of email asking how users can purchase Drive Bender. With the release of RC1, we will be starting our pre-release sale to those users that are members of the beta program. This sale will run until the final release date of Drive Bender, at which time the discounted pricing will end. The pre-release sale price is only $20 USD… so you need to be quick.

For more information check out the Drive Bender website

Two Minute Review – the Innergie mCube Slim 95 Compact 95W Universal Adapter

Andrew Edney
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0
Two Minute Review – the Innergie mCube Slim 95 Compact 95W Universal Adapter

Would you like to carry a smaller laptop power adaptor around with you? Or would you just like to replace your current one? If so, then look no further than the Innergie mCube Slim 95 Compact 95W Universal Adapter.

UWHS Review - Innergie mCube Slim 95 14

The mCube Slim 95 provides a powerful and safe power solution in an ultra-compact design. Its high power efficiency lets you charge your laptop and a 10W USB device simultaneously at home, in your office, or anywhere life takes you.

Who are Innergie?

From their website:

The world we live in is an ever-changing environment. We understand that you will always need to be powered and connected.

Discover your true power with Innergie.

Explore our innovative solutions to achieve more in your digital life. Stay connected with our stylish, reliable, and energy efficient products.

No matter where you are, or where you are going – Innergie will be there to power up your life.

Specifications

Powerful & Ultra Compact

Provides 95W of powerful power output in an ultra-compact form factor. Its compact size and powerful charging functions allow you to charge laptop and portable devices at the same time, providing greater convenience and time efficiencies.

10W USB for iPad and more

With a 10W USB power port, the mCube Slim 95 supports iPad and all other standard USB devices with its high power efficiency.

Energy Saving

With extremely high power efficiency, you can reduce your energy costs and reduce CO2 emissions.

Multi Built-in Protections

Built-in protection against unstable voltage means you can use Innergie with confidence everywhere you go.

Great Compatibility

Charge most popular brands of laptops between 15-21 volts and up to 100 watts consumption, including Acer, Asus, Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, HP, IBM, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, and more

Travel Safe

RTCA aviation certified guarantees safe usage on airplanes.

mCube 95 Specs

What’s in the Box?

The box itself comes well packaged, and contains the mCube Slim 95, an AC input cable, DC output cable and manual.

UWHS Review - Innergie mCube Slim 95 2UWHS Review - Innergie mCube Slim 95 3UWHS Review - Innergie mCube Slim 95 4UWHS Review - Innergie mCube Slim 95 5UWHS Review - Innergie mCube Slim 95 15UWHS Review - Innergie mCube Slim 95 16

There is also a neat little travel bag with two separate zipped compartments to hold everything secure.

UWHS Review - Innergie mCube Slim 95 22

FireCore Release Media Player 0.9 for 2nd Gen AppleTV

Andrew Edney
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0
FireCore Release Media Player 0.9 for 2nd Gen AppleTV

FireCore have just released an update to it’s Media Player application, taking it to version 0.9. If you have ATV2, go update now!

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What’s new in version 0.9?

  • Added hardware decoding for .m2ts files
  • Added TV Show metadata fetching
  • Added option to correct movie metadata
  • Added DSI ping for better operation with AFP shares
  • Added folder tagging
  • Added metadata view indicator
  • Added support for metadata overriding using xml files
  • Added DVD menu buffering
  • Improved data buffering and playback performance
  • Improved network error handling
  • Improved filename parsing for metadata fetching
  • Improved NAS drives support and increased connection timeout
  • Improved video loading process
  • Improved playback position detection
  • Resolved audio synchronization issues
  • Resolved problems when streaming from an AirPort Extreme
  • Resolved issues that caused the first subtitle section to be skipped
  • Resolved performance and crash related issues for certain DVD files
  • Resolved audio playback issues when the connection to Last.fm fails
  • Resolved potential issues in shares handling and filename processing
  • Resolved AFP related crashes
  • Resolved .dvdmedia extensions and folder images not hiding
  • Resolved floating crash during metadata fetching
  • Resolved critical compatibility issues with iOS 5
  • Minor UI improvements
  • Many other miscellaneous fixes

TV Show metadata and folder tagging

Media Player now supports automatically fetching series and episode information for TV Shows. This includes information such as episode name, cast, director, genre, air date, content rating and episode thumbnails. To enable TV Show metadata, the drive/folder that contains your TV Show files will need to be specifically tagged as TV Shows. Details on tagging a drive/folder are below.

  1. Highlight the folder to be tagged.
  2. Hold the center select button and select the ‘TV Shows’ option.
  3. TV Show metadata will now be used for all media contained inside that folder.

Note: By default, subfolders will inherit the tag of the nearest parent folder. For Example: A folder called “My Fav Shows” has 3 folders inside it: 30 Rock, The Sopranos, and Top Gear. Marking the My Fav Shows folder with a TV Shows tag will cause TV Show metadata to be downloaded for all files contained inside the My Fav Shows folder as well as the 3 enclosed subfolders. Media Player will default to Movie metadata if no folder tags are specified.

Correcting movie metadata

Media Player tries its best to get metadata right on the first try, but unfortunately sometimes it may get it wrong. The good news is that now fixing incorrect movie metadata is simpler than ever! Just follow the steps below to get back on track.

  1. Highlight a file that has incorrect metadata.
  2. Hold the center select button and select the ‘Reload Metadata’ option.
  3. Choose the correct movie title from the list.

Outstanding! Now how do I get it?

With aTV Flash (black) installed, Media Player 0.9 can be downloaded on your ATV2 through the Maintenance –> Manage Extras menu. If you need to re-install aTV Flash (black) links for the latest version can be found under the Downloads tab in your account.

New users can pre-order aTV Flash (black) here.

AWIECO Looking for WakeOnLAN Pro Beta Testers

Andrew Edney
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0
AWIECO Looking for WakeOnLAN Pro Beta Testers

Would you be interested in being a beta tester for the AWIECO WakeOnLAN Pro add-in for Windows Home Server 2011?

awieco

If you are interested, send an email to info@awieco.com

Review of the Samsung Series 830 256GB SSD

Andrew Edney
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3
Review of the Samsung Series 830 256GB SSD

Last week we told you about the Samsung Series 830 SSD – now we have the first of two reviews of SSD! This review specifically looks at connecting the SSD to a 3Gb/s SATA connection.

UWHS Review - Samsung Series 830 SSD

The Samsung SSD 830 Series boasts superior random read speeds (up to 80,000 IOPS) and faster sequential read and write speeds (up to 520 MB/s & 400 MB/s respectively). It’s the ideal solution for your everyday computing needs, such as web browsing, document creation, viewing or editing multimedia files, playing PC games, etc.

Samsung’s first entry into the world of SSD’s came earlier in the year with the the Series 470 SSD, which we loved. Now, it’s time to introduce it’s successor – the Series 830 SSD.

As the world’s #1 DRAM, NAND Flash, and SSD supplier, Samsung has unique, industry-leading engineering resources, technologies, and manufacturing processes as well as more stringent quality and testing standards. All Samsung SSDs are designed and built completely in-house, rather than sourcing generic parts from the market. The Samsung SSD 830 Series is optimized for exceptional, sustained performance and unrivalled reliability through its specially-engineered wear-levelling and garbage collection algorithms.

 

There are 4 different models – the 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and the whopping 512GB. There are also 3 different kits – the basic kit (which comes with the SSD, a full version of Norton Ghost 15.0, software and manuals), the laptop installation kit (with comes the same as the basic kit plus a mounting space and SATA data and power cable) and the desktop installation kit (with comes the same as the basic kit plus a 3.5” bracket with screws and SATA data and power cables).

For this review we have the 256GB drive basic kit version.

SSDs

Solid State Drives, or SSDs, are innovative data storage devices that deliver high performance, reliability, and quality by using NAND Flash memory instead of the magnetic disks used in traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDDs). SSDs provide very fast PC booting and application loading speeds and perform exceptionally well in multi-tasking environments – all while consuming less power, emitting very little heat, producing no noise, and offering outstanding stability compared to conventional HDDs.

830 solution

Specifications

830 Specs

StableBit DrivePool Moves to Beta M3 Build 4056

Andrew Edney
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0
StableBit DrivePool Moves to Beta M3 Build 4056

There has been another beta build from CoveCube! StableBit development marches on – now is build 4056.

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Here is how CoveCube describes this application:

  • Combine all your hard drives into one big storage pool (except the system drive with the OS).
  • Add and remove drives from the pool at any time without re-partitioning or manually moving folders.
  • Create duplicated folders on the storage drive pool that are protected against single drive failure. If a drive fails on which a duplicated file was stored, the contents of that file will remain readable even without the drive.
  • All your data is stored in standard NTFS files. You can always access your files even if the Windows Home Server completely crashes or this add-in can’t be used.

This version’s change log:

1.0.0.4056 ———-

* Start the client computer backup service after upgrade.

Get More Information About the Beta Here Download Stablebit Drivepool build 4056 here

DVBLink Client Now Available in Windows Phone Marketplace

Andrew Edney
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0
DVBLink Client Now Available in Windows Phone Marketplace

The DVBLink Client for Windows Phone 7 is now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

DVBLink Client

Windows Phone client for DVBLink TV Server.

Watch Live TV, browse EPG, view program details, manage timer recordings from your mobile phone.

This app requires DVBLink Connect!

Server installation on the server computer.

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Get it now, for free, from the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Play in the Open Beta of Battlefield 3

Andrew Edney
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1
Play in the Open Beta of Battlefield 3

A few months ago we brought you some footage of Battlefield 3, now you can join the open beta and play it for yourself on either your PC, an Xbox 360 or a PS3.

BF3

This is a very cool game and one you really need to play if you like these sorts of games. I cant wait for the full release in a months time!

Sign up for the open beta from here
Welcome to the Open Beta of Battlefield 3

StableBit DrivePool Moves to Beta M3 Build 4055

Andrew Edney
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0
StableBit DrivePool Moves to Beta M3 Build 4055

There has been another beta build from CoveCube! StableBit development marches on – now is build 4055.

600px-Stablebit_drivepool_screen_thu16

Here is how CoveCube describes this application:

  • Combine all your hard drives into one big storage pool (except the system drive with the OS).
  • Add and remove drives from the pool at any time without re-partitioning or manually moving folders.
  • Create duplicated folders on the storage drive pool that are protected against single drive failure. If a drive fails on which a duplicated file was stored, the contents of that file will remain readable even without the drive.
  • All your data is stored in standard NTFS files. You can always access your files even if the Windows Home Server completely crashes or this add-in can’t be used.

This version’s change log:

1.0.0.4055 ———-

* Changed reset permissions to apply owner / inheritance rules in separate stages.

1.0.0.4040 ———-

* Security functions should be Unicode enabled.

1.0.0.4039 ———-

* Change permissions on C:\ServerPool\ServerFolders.Mount to prevent file / folder creation when DrivePool is not running.

* Before sharing a folder, ensure proper access to it.

* Added reset folder permission settings option. See folder properties, permissions tab.

* [D] Fixed new file creation change notification.

Get More Information About the Beta Here Download Stablebit Drivepool build 4055 here

Skype for iPhone Updated to version 3.5.117

Andrew Edney
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0
Skype for iPhone Updated to version 3.5.117

The Skype app for the iPhone has been updated for the second time this week – this time to version 3.5.117.

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What’s New in Version 3.5.117

* Bluetooth support for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 4th Generation, and iPad 2
* Incoming emoticons; outgoing emoticons displayed when entered in text form
* Enhanced video through image stabilization
* New easy-to-use interface
* Advertising will be shown to users that do not have Skype Credit, a calling subscription or premium subscription
* Bugfix for security vulnerability
* Bugfix for syncing issues

Congratulations to all MVPs Everywhere

Andrew Edney
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0
Congratulations to all MVPs Everywhere

If you have just been awarded an MVP or have just had it renewed, then congratulations are in order.

Today is one of those time sof the year when people all around the world are awarded, or rewarded an MVP (Most Valued Professional) award from Microsoft for work in the community,

I have been honoured over the last few years to be an MVP in Windows Home Server, and I have a lot of good friends who are WHS MVPs, along with Digital Media Experience and Small Business Server MVPs.

MVP’s are awarded four times a year so lets see who else will become an MVP soon.

To learn more about the MVP program, click here: https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/

I have my fingers crossed for my renewal in January!

XBMC EDEN – Coming Soon

Andrew Edney
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0
XBMC EDEN – Coming Soon

The guys over at XBMC have started to talk about the next version of XBMC – EDEN!

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Here is what they said:

Today marks the first step in the long-awaited release cycle for Eden: soft-freeze. Other than what is already slated for entry, no new features may be added unless they’re deemed critical for release. After that comes a hard freeze, when all APIs are frozen and we prepare to release the first Beta.

So much has changed since Dharma, we’ll use this space over the coming weeks to discuss in more detail what you can expect in 11.0. For now, Here are a few things you’re sure to notice:

  • A new “Files” view in the video library in order to remove the notion of Library Mode vs. Files Mode that confused so many new users.
  • The default skin changed to a horizontal layout allowing for more useful information to be displayed on the home screen (vertical version is still available in Add-ons)
  • Efficiency improvements to reduce high cpu/gpu usage
  • Much improved touchscreen support to go along with the first major versioned XBMC release for the iOS (iPad, iPhone, AppleTv2)
  • Ability to customize the home screen by adding your favorite Add-ons
  • The usual smattering of visual improvements, playback improvements, new ways to stream and discover media.. the list goes on.

The last few days have been hectic as the developers have been working hard to get their last changes in, but we’ll be slowing things down now to begin cleaning up for release!

I’m very much looking forward to testing this out! How about you?

Files are available from here
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